Third in my series of posts about inspirational quotes that have changed my life is one that I came up with and use for myself to help deal with feelings of overwhelm. It might be more like a mantra, but either way, I’m going to share it. When I was a far younger writer, still new and unsure of myself I used to get discouraged a lot when seeing the success of other writers. I would get stuck in one of these complaints:
I’ll never be that good.
I don’t write enough.
My website/social media account is crappy.
I don’t know enough.
I don’t have enough time.
I’m not good enough.
Or something similar. And then one day I responded to myself with: “So are you going to quit writing completely then?”
To which the answer was: “Well …no.”
“Then take one step and worry about the rest later.”
Nowadays this is shortened in my head to a more mantra-like statement that I use whenever I have a feeling of inadequacy or overwhelm when it comes to my writing. I just say to myself, as a question, with no malice or judgment: “Are you going to quit?” And then I keep going because the answer is ‘no’.
It’s basically become an interrupt for my negative thoughts, which immediately allows me to focus more on what I’m doing at the time and not worry about everything I might need to do.
The other thing that helps me with this problem is making lists, because that shows me my steps and then I can put them in order and cross them out. In addition, most times the list I come up with, of things to do, has some that can easily be put off (not an immediate deadline) which makes the list shorter and easier to manage.
Do you have a statement/mantra or ritual that you use to help with feelings of overwhelm? in order to help push you to a more positive mindset? Please share it in the comments.
